As microprocessor technology dominates the electronic industry, more and more devices are taking advantage of their high processing power and flexibility. It is well known that as the speed, which is directly proportional to the processing power of microprocessors, increases, so does the current consumption at a set voltage. Battery operated devices, by their nature, treat their supply current very conservatively, in order to save their valuable battery energy.
Generally, microprocessor operated devices include a regulator that regulates the operating voltage to levels appropriate for the proper operation of their various elements. These regulated voltages are chosen with sufficient safety margins to provide regulated supply voltage to all the active components under extreme conditions as demanded by environmental changes and processing speed. These safety margins render the regulated voltage much higher than required for normal operation, resulting in significant unnecessary loss of battery energy. This loss of energy becomes more appreciable as the number of active elements relying on the supply voltage increases. Circuit designers are forced to increase their operating voltages to insure proper operation for all the worst case conditions. It is therefore desired to have an electronic device that can optimize the energy consumption without compromising or sacrificing performance.